Branstad hopeful on low income health care waiver

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad says he is hopeful that Iowa will win federal approval for an expansion of low-income health care in the “very near future.”

The state has applied for a waiver enabling the state to receive more federal Medicaid money for the proposed Iowa Health and Wellness Plan, a new health insurance program which would cover up to 150,000 residents.

So far the waiver has not been granted. Branstad says Tuesday he has requested a meeting with President Barack Obama when he travels to Washington DC later this week.

Under the proposal, the state would take federal funding to create a new health plan for some poor residents and to pay the premiums for other low-income Iowans to get private insurance on the new health care exchanges.